What is the Church and what is its mission today? Denominational Response

From an unprogrammed Quaker standpoint, we were formed to dissolve the Church.  The early Friends felt that Christianity was not being well served by the Church, whether in its Catholic or its Protestant forms.  Thus, Friends sought a “third way.”  This was through taking refuge in the Word or the Holy Spirit, relying on Jesus’ promise that we would be given the Spirit after his death, on his statements that “where two or three are gathered, he would be with us,” and other forms of Biblical inspiration.  George Fox wrote that this “inward Light,” as he called it, was Jesus’ Second Coming - Jesus come back to teach us, directly and immediately to us as particular people.  Fox called on us to discover this “experimentally,” for ourselves, without the intercession of others though possibly with the help of others of like mind.  Because of these beliefs, Friends sought to disrupt Christian Churches with their hierarchies, vestments, ritual, paid clergy, and centrally defined theology.  Unprogrammed Friends seek to rid ourselves of the assumptions that lead to these religious trappings.

As such, unprogrammed Friends originally saw the church as having no mission, other than to disband their then current practices.  In our times, I believe that many unprogrammed Meetings view the church in similar ways.  We often have to deal with “refugees” from other Christian denominations, who report to us that they have been damaged by their former churches and who come to us for healing.  We also struggle with internal power games, how to achieve non-hierarchical community, what it means to worship, how to educate without coercion - all of the things that confront churches; we try to do this without relying on what we view as social crutches, like central authority, doctrinal control of religious language, and a set-apart clergy.

At the same time, Meetings engage with Christian churches, as well as with other faith communities, in social action.  We support domestic and overseas missions of direct relief, medical care, hunger prevention, disaster relief, education, resistance to war-making, political action, and other forms of social programs that promote justice and well-being.

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As a side note, I will say that I can only speak about the unprogrammed branch of Quakerism.  I do not understand how the term “Friends Church” makes sense, and I do not get why one would want to have paid clergy, as a professional status, within a Quaker setting, along with preaching and other Protestant forms of worship.  But I celebrate that others find these helpful.  In all, I am totally happy with the challenges presented via unprogrammed Quakerism, and find that to be fully enough to study and contemplate.  So, please, there is no need to convince me otherwise.

I do ask for a higher level of respect from alternate forms of Quakerism toward our form of liberal, socially progressive,  non-doctrinal, non-hierarchical religion.  I have been disappointed in this many times, often enduring casual verbal slurs, “jokes,” and even occasional outright anger when I persist in my beliefs (yes, right here in seminary).  I have to consider this to be an unacceptable side-effect or what I see as contamination by “the Church.”  Please prove me wrong.  End the culture wars.  [In any event, though, I will continue happily in my liberal world.]